A Red String of Fate
by felysca
Summary: "An invisible red string connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The string may stretch or tangle, but it will never break" James and Lily haven't always been on the best of terms, and after an unfortunate incident in their fifth year, it seems as if they will never even be friendly. We know differently however. Canon-compliant.
1. Of Book Forts and Toerags

**Chapter One: Of Book Forts and Toerags **

"Lily!" Severus grumbled, as he and Lily made their way down a slightly crowded corridor towards the library. They were each carrying their bags, filled to the brim with O.W.L. notes and textbooks seeing as how tomorrow, they were going to take their last two exams. Astronomy in the morning and Defense Against the Dark Arts in the afternoon. Severus was not currently complaining about _how_ Lily wanted to spend the afternoon, but more about _where_ she wanted to spend it. "The library is going to be packed with prats who waited till the last minute to study for their O.W.L.s. I don't want to go there."

"It's a library, Sev." Lily said, rolling her eyes and waving at a random student as they walked passed them. Severus ducked his head to avoid eye contact. "Other people are allowed to be there."

"We could go study somewhere else." He suggested. "Like an empty classroom. No one would bother us there."

"Severus Snape," Lily said, turning to face him with her hands on her hips. She had a playful smile on her lips, but Severus didn't think she was about to agree with him. "You know the reputation those classrooms have. You don't really expect _me_ to go there, do you?"

"We would just be studying, Lils. You've been hanging out with Potter too much."

"What does that even mean?" She asked, and then without waiting for an answer she added, "Besides, we're already at the library, there's no need to find somewhere else now."

"I really don't think this is a good idea, Lily." He said, stopping just short of the entrance.

"Why?" She asked, narrowing her eyes slightly but meaningfully. "Are you worried that one of your friends might see you studying with me?"

Severus sighed at the tired accusation. "Of course not. It's just going to be loud and we might not get _our_ table."

"Then we'll sit somewhere else." Lily said not seeming at all worried. She then turned on her heel, grabbed his arm and pushed the door to the library open. Reluctantly, he allowed her to pull him inside; and just as he had suspected, the library was extremely full. Lily however didn't seem to mind in the slightest and walked quickly through the clusters of studying students.

There was an unspoken rule that unless it was absolutely necessary, only the fifth and seventh years were allowed in the library this week. And even with five of the seven years missing, the library still seemed to be bursting at the seams.

"Where are we going!" He protested, trying to get her to stop at their miraculously empty table near the side window. "Our table is empty, look."

"We're not sitting there today." Lily said, as she kept walking towards the back.

"But it's _our_ table." He said with more emphasize, just in case she had misunderstood the first time. "And it's right in the middle of the Charms and Potions section. Your favorite classes."

"We've already taken our Charms and Potions O.W.L.s though, so that's not really useful is it? We have our Defense O.W.L. tomorrow so that's the section of the library we should sit in."

"But- alright." Unable to find fault in her argument, he relented. He then followed her through the maze of shelves and students until they reached the back of the library and the Defense section. There weren't many tables back here, just a few small ones spread out sporadically and one large circular table near the very back wall wedged in between a three book cases and another smaller table. He was loath to see that it was full of Gryffindor girls and Lily was headed straight for it. "You didn't say anything about-"

"Hullo everyone!" Lily said brightly, ignoring Severus completely. "You don't mind if Sev joins us, do you?"

"I don't care who's here," Mary said, her nose buried in her textbook. "But if he makes _one_ derisive comment about anything, or if he talks at all actually, I'm going to hex him for distracting me."

"Mary, have you ever thought about investing in anger management." Marlene sighed from her seat next to the frustrated brunette. "And if you actually bothered to study with us for the last month, you wouldn't be so frustrated right now. Hullo, Severus."

"Marlene." He greeted curtly. Lily dropped into the empty chair next to Marlene and then looked at Severus expectantly.

"Sit." She ordered when he did nothing. Slowly, and begrudgingly, he lowered himself onto the chair next to her and pulled a book out of his bag. "So," She turned her attention to Marlene. "What are we working on right now?"

"We're going over the correct wand technique for shield charms." She said. "I keep getting them all mixed up though. I was fine until I wanted to practice them back to back, now they're all running together."

"You need to stop stressing yourself out. You know this stuff. We've been practicing, you know you know it. I know you know it."

"And _I_ know a way to help you remember the difference, Marlene." Severus said quietly. Throughout the past five years at Hogwarts, Severus had been forced to spend much more time than he wanted to with Lily's other friends. Marlene was the one he disliked the least. "When you're doing th-"

"Shut up!" Mary snapped. "I'm trying to read here."

"I'm just trying to help her!" Severus retorted.

"You're distracting me, and I'm going to hex you."

"No you're not." Lily said exasperatedly. "We're here to study Mary. Sev can help Marlene if he wants."

"Whatever." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and went back to her book.

Before Severus could continue helping Marlene, Remus walked up to the table and sat down on Severus's left. "I hope you don't mind if I join you." He said sounding annoyed. "But if I have to sit with those gits for any longer, I'm going to lose it." There were several bangs from the direction Remus had come from and Peter's voice could be heard cursing James for singeing his eyebrows. "They're playing Exploding Snap."

"Idiots." Mary muttered. "If you talk-"

"She'll hex you." Marlene finished with a grin. "We don't mind at all if you join us, Remus. And I could actually use your help with this."

"Sure, what do you need?" He asked, leaning over the table to look at her notes.

"This was fun." Severus said standing up and grabbing his things. "But I'll see you later, Lily."

"Sev, you said you would- Sev. Sev. Okay, he's gone." Lily sighed, shaking her head at Severus's retreating figure.

"You didn't really think he was going to stay, did you?" Mary asked. Lily picked up a broken quill that was sitting on the table and threw it at her.

"Bugger off, Mary."

* * *

At a slightly smaller, square table not too far from the girls and Remus, the other three Marauders were engaged in various activities. James and Peter were playing Exploding Snap while Sirius was hiding behind a wall of books, including their textbooks, tossing bits of parchment at people as they walked by.

"I'm so glad that we have a deaf librarian." Sirius laughed as a piece of paper he had just thrown, got lodged in Dedalus Diggle's ear. He ignored the scathing look the Hufflepuff sent his way and added, "It almost makes the library a fun place to hang out."

"If it weren't for the depressing activities going on around us." James agreed.

"You mean the studying?" Peter asked.

"No, Peter. I'm talking about the wild Quidditch game going on in the corner. Yes, I mean the studying." James said, as the cards exploded again during Peter's turn. "Another point for me."

"I'm really not good at this game, James. I've already lost most of my eyebrows. Can we do something else?"

"Your eyebrows are replaceable." James shrugged. "And besides, what else is there to do?"

"You could always join me." Sirius said, ducking behind his wall as the librarian walked by with her cart of books. He snickered when he saw her pause at a shelf that he had emptied to make his fortress.

"She's going to ban you for life." James said, while flipping his cards over. "I don't want to be a part of that. I might actually want to use the library for its real purpose next year or something."

"You've been talking to Evans too much, mate. Your personality is suffering."

"I'm playing Exploding Snap in the library during O.W.L.s week. I'm pretty sure she's not having that strong of an influence over me." James said as he reached over and pushed Sirius wall of books on top of him.

"Oi!" Sirius yelled, catching Madam Dewey's attention. "I worked hard on that!" He picked up a book and drew back his arm to throw it at James just as Peter made the cards explode once again. Just as the book was about to leave his hand, Madam Dewey grabbed his arm and wrenched the book from his grasp.

"Out." She said with more menace than her five foot frame should have allowed. "You three are banned from the library for the rest of term." She turned around and started muttering to herself. "Exploding Snap… no respect for the books… mindless fools."

Sirius rubbed his arm where her hand had been. "She's got quite the grip for being over a century old." He muttered. "Let's grab Remus and head back to the common room."

"This is your fault." James said, smacking Sirius over the back of the head.

"You're the one who knocked my wall down."

"You're the idiot who shouted in the library when Dewey was right in front of us."

"You're both idiots." Peter interjected. "Now let's go before she comes back."

"Not without Remus." Sirius said. The boys all walked over to gather their friend.

"Remus, we're leaving." James informed him as he reached the table. "Come on. Maybe we'll stop by the kitchens."

"We've only been here for fifteen minutes!" Remus exclaimed. "I'm not leaving. I'm here to study, which is something that wouldn't hurt the lot of you to try."

"We appreciate the suggestion, mate." James said with a cheeky grin on his face. "But if we're going to study, it's not going to be here."

"And why in the blazing hell is that?" Remus asked, setting his quill down and crossing his arms over his chest.

"We all got kicked out." Sirius shrugged. Remus closed his eyes and slowly shook his head.

"Wow, you managed to last a whole fifteen minutes before you got kicked out?" Lily asked sarcastically. "I think that's a new record."

"You are so clever, Evans." James said dryly while running a hand through his hair. "I'm just dying over here." Lily stuck her tongue out at him and pulled a face which James returned.

"You didn't get kicked out, you got us banned for the whole term." Peter said.

"The term is almost over, Pete. Don't worry about it." Sirius said, clapping him on the back. "So are you coming with us or not, Remus?"

"And keep in mind, that you don't have a choice." James grinned.

"I'm not going with you." Remus said, ducking his head back over his book. "And I'd like to see you try and make me."

"But we're going to the kitchens, Remus!" James said.

"Going to the kitchens is not a viable excuse for leaving the library on the night before an exam," replied Remus. Sirius and Peter gasped.

"You take that back!" said Sirius as he caught the edge of the table, pretending to faint with shock. In a huff, he straightened and dramatically walked all the way across the library, pausing at the entrance and looking over his shoulder. "Are you blokes coming or what?" He shouted, causing everyone in the library to turn and look at him and Madam Dewey to storm over, grab his ear, and forcefully remove him out of the library.

"Sorry about him. We're working on housetraining still, he hasn't caught the basics yet and-" James began to apologize but was interrupted by Remus's elbow to the gut. Marlene raised her eyebrow at Remus's action, but no one else seemed to notice. "Really though, do any of you lot want to come with?"

"No, we're going to try and do some more revising before lights out. We'll see you later." Lily turned back to her book, a clear dismissal. James' gaze lingered on Lily for another moment before he shrugged and waved Peter away from the girls.

"Come on, Wormtail, let's go."

* * *

_Almost exactly twenty-four hours later on the grounds of Hogwarts, close to the shore of the Black Lake…_

"Evans!" James called after Lily as she stormed towards the castle. "Hey, EVANS!" Lily pushed through the throng of people surrounding the boys, ignoring people trying to talk to her. Marlene hurried after her.

"Lily, wait!" called Marlene, but she didn't slow down until she reached the third floor. She had just finished her O.W.L.s. She was meant to be celebrating. Why did those two always have to ruin things for her? Marlene caught up to her fairly quickly and, breathing heavily, tried to placate her. "Lily, it's going to be okay, he was just embarrassed-" And that's where Lily lost the rest of her self-control.

"That doesn't give him _any _right to call me that! He knows what it means, he knows that _Mudbloods_ are being murdered and treated like shit!" Lily stopped and threw her bag on the ground. She let out a wordless shout of anger and pounded the wall with her fist. Marlene stared wide-eyed at her usually sensible and serene best friend. For a moment, both of the girls stood in silence, neither one of them completely sure what Lily was doing. Then Lily decided that she didn't care and threw her hands up, continuing her tirade.

"Do you know what he told me about his friends attacking Mary in the corridor a few weeks ago? He told me they were just having a bit of fun and didn't mean to hurt anyone. _A bit of fun_, can you believe it? He called Dark magic 'a bit of fun' and then pretended as if I was overreacting. I didn't push it because _I _thought we were trying to be friends! Because _I_ didn't want to lose him.

"But now he's _completely_ gone back and says that word to me and he's always said that it didn't matter. He _promised_ that my being a Muggle-born didn't matter, and then he said that! Marlene, he told me it didn't matter. I thought we were friends, I thought we were going to patch things up and be back to normal!"

"Lily, he was embarrassed, I'm sure he didn't mean to say it. It probably just slipped out. You two are just having a row; you've been having those lately." Marlene's attempt to soothe her friend went unnoticed.

"I am not friends with Severus Snape anymore," said Lily with finality. She held a serious face for a moment longer before dissolving into tears and letting herself slide down the wall to sit on the floor. Marlene was now at a complete loss for words, but after a slight moment of hesitation, she slid down to join Lily on the floor and put an arm around her.

"I just thought we could fix things, Marlene. I thought he was going to change, that this Dark persona was just a phase to show off, to fit in with his housemates. But this is too much. I can't keep pretending that he's the nine-year-old I met in the park and I don't want to keep justifying my friendship with him to you. I shouldn't have ever had to justify being friends with him." Marlene nodded and awkwardly patted the other girl's shoulder. The girls stayed there for a while longer, with Lily letting out random outbursts of anger and Marlene making comforting remarks and agreeing. Finally, when Lily had stopped crying and was feeling more sad than angry, Marlene convinced her to go back to the dormitories so they can finish packing. She was hoping to distract Lily. However, once they're in the common room, it was quickly made clear that any attempts to distract Lily were futile, because James quickly made his way towards her.

"Listen, Evans, about earlier…Can we talk about it?"

"What's to talk about?" Lily said flatly. Marlene and James exchanged a look.

"Evans, not sure if you remember or not, but there were some things said earlier and I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"You mean you wanted to make sure I wasn't angry with you?" Lily said, still not showing any emotion.

James cracked a grin. "Well, yeah. I suppose that was part of it. So, are you angry with me?"

"Why would I be angry with you James? What did you do?" Lily asked, in the same flat tone. Marlene looked nervously at her friend, sensing the on-coming explosion. James, however, was still completely oblivious.

"Umm…" James, still smiling, shrugged. "I guess I didn't do much of anything. Snivellus on the oth-"

"Do not call him that." Lily said firmly, taking a threatening step towards James.

"Right, sorry." James said, his smile faltering slightly. "I meant Snape."

"I knew what you meant." Silence fell between them again. James' smile had completely left his face, Marlene was eyeing Lily anxiously, and Lily had gone white with internal fury.

"About the giant squid comment though. Were you being serious, or…?"

"Is that all you care about, Potter? I just lost my best friend because you and your friends decided to be prats and show off like you always do!"

"I think you and your poor judge of character are partially to blame for that. A flobberworm could see that he was a bad egg!" Marlene winced at James' remarks. She hoped that the oncoming disagreement would be a short one, because Lily had been through enough already, and she really did have to finish packing.

"_Excuse me_?" Lily shouted. And with that died Marlene's hope of getting anything done tonight.

"Listen, I think everyone's had a long day. We had an exam, let's all just go to dinner and cool off a little bit."

"Shut up Marlene," Lily said vehemently, causing the girl to flinch back. "You come over here, Potter, and try and laugh off the fact that you definitely played a defining role in what happened today, then expect me to fall into your arms because you tried to save me? Really, I thought you had a better grip on reality than this. If you want me to be completely honest, I meant every single word that I said today. Especially the ones about you being a toerag, and the part about the giant squid."

"Oh alright, Miss Can-Do-No-Wrong. Still taking his side even though he called you a you-know-what in front of half the school." James stepped closer and glared down at Lily, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I thought that would have proved to you once and for all what kind of person he was."

"I'm not taking his side, Potter. This isn't even about you at all. I know you're not used to not having the world revolve around you every second, but it's about time you realized that it doesn't. Apparently, _your_ judgment of character has given you friends that can't tell you that you're not the most important person in the world."

"At least my friends don't call me things like that and expect me to still be nice to them." James decided to not press the issue any farther and tried to stalk away. Lily followed him across the common room, spouting angry insults at his retreating back until he whirled around.

"You know what your problem is, Evans? Your problem is that you're really surprised that this happened. You're living in a world of sunshine and daisies and you expect everyone to act how you want them to, but that's not how people work. They change as they grow up and they disappoint you and hurt you. I think it's about time you realized that. You march around telling me to grow up, but why don't you do us all a favor and take your own advice?" Lily was speechless, and James took advantage of that to make his way up the stairs. The door to the boys' dormitory could be heard slamming shut throughout the quiet common room. As Lily stood there in shock, the people around her started whispering and she felt her eyes begin to sting.

"Come on Lily, let's go upstairs." Marlene guides Lily into their dormitory. The faces of the other girls were blurred through Lily's tears and their attempts to comfort her fell on deaf ears as she made her way across the room to throw herself onto the bed and bury her face in the pillow.

The other girls pretended they couldn't hear her crying.

* * *

**A/N: HELLO THERE POTTERHEADS! This is the first installment of the work in progress entitled "A Red String of Fate". We both hope that you enjoyed it and will continue reading as we make our way throughout the next years in James and Lily's lives. Thanks for reading, we hope you leave a review, and we can't promise that the next chapter won't be any less angst-y. However, IT DOES GET (somewhat, this is a Jily story) HAPPIER.**


	2. Of Garden Trowels and Torn Robes

**Chapter Two: Of Garden Trowels and Torn Robes **

When Petunia walked into Lily's bedroom, she wasn't entirely sure that her younger sister was there at all. Muffled sobs were her only indication of _where_ Lily was. She could see the giant pile of blankets on Lily's bed shaking slightly, so she marched up and yanked them onto the floor.

"Get up." She demanded. Lily rolled over and looked up at Petunia with red eyes. Her hair was all matted and strands were stuck to her blotchy face. "Mum wants us to go weed the garden and water the flowers. Plus she went out and got loads of daffodils that she wants planted."

"Can we do it later?" Lily asked, trying to dry her face off with a sheet that Petunia hadn't thrown on the floor.

"No. You've been in your room since you got home from school last week and you've done nothing but cry. I don't know what's wrong because you haven't told anyone, but here's some generic advice. Boys are stupid, there are other fish in the sea, you were too good for them anyway and you can't spend your life living in the past. Now get up, get dressed and then come and meet me downstairs." Without waiting for a reply, Petunia stalked out the room slamming the door behind her as she went.

Lily stared at the door for a few moments blinking owlishly. She felt very much like crying again, but she didn't want Petunia to come back in and physically drag her out of her room. Though some sort of verbal altercation might make her feel better. At least while she was shouting. Afterwards she would just have yet another thing to cry about.

She pushed herself off her bed and pulled on a pair of jeans that were probably dirty, but she didn't care. Then she walked over to the bathroom, splashed some water on her face, brushed her teeth and tried to comb through her hair. When that proved to be too difficult, she just pulled it back into a plait and called it good.

Ten minutes later, the two girls were out in the garden. Lily was pulling weeds and Petunia was planting the daffodils. Petunia tried to make conversation, but her attempts only rewarded her with short answers and she finally stopped. They worked silently, thus the creaking of the front gate startled them both.

"Hi, Lily." Both girls looked up and Petunia's eyes narrowed instinctively when she saw Lily's greasy-haired friend that lived over on Spinners End. She looked over at her sister and saw that, underneath the smudges of dirt on her face, Lily had blanched.

"Is there a reason you're here, Sev-erus?" said Lily tremulously, making herself say his full name. They weren't friends anymore. Nicknames were for friends.

"I thought we could talk about…you know. I tried catching you before school stopped but everyone said you were avoiding me."

"Everyone was right." Severus scuffed his shoe in the dirt and looked around.

"Nice garden," he said with an attempt at a smile. Petunia suddenly realized the reason that Lily had kept to herself for the past week.

"Go away, Snape!" she said heatedly. "I don't know exactly what happened, but if you hurt Lily somehow, I'll take that magic stick of yours and shove it up your-"

"Petunia!" Lily was surprised at her elder sister's tone. Petunia never was nice to her, and her little speech earlier in Lily's bedroom in addition to whatever was happening now was somewhat out of character.

"Well, whatever happened, I'm blaming him. He seems guilty."

Lily scoffed and turned back to Severus. "What do you want?" Her tone was carefully emotionless.

"Lily, I'm sorry I called you a you-know-what, but-"

"Can't say it now? You didn't have a problem with saying _Mudblood_ in front of our entire year!" Petunia wasn't exactly sure what a Mudblood was, but judging from the way Lily spat out the word and how Severus recoiled, it was bad.

"You called my baby sister a WHAT?" shouted Petunia, acting as though she knew exactly what the word meant. Trowel in hand, she advanced on Severus. "If you _ever_ come near this house again, I will throw this trowel at your stupid, abnormally large nose, damn the consequences!" Petunia shook the fist that was holding the trowel to solidify her point. "Do I make myself clear? Now get off our property before I call the police!"

Severus hurriedly backed out of the garden and latched the gate, pausing to tell Lily he would see her on the train. Petunia called after him: "You go ahead and try talking to her again and just see what happens!"

"Tuney, where did that come from?" asked Lily once Severus had gone.

"He's been coming by in the afternoons asking to see you, and Mum said I should be nice. Well, Mum's not here and apparently he's why you have been in your room. Also, I don't like him. He's dirty."

"Thanks…" Lily tentatively smiled at her sister. She had always thought that Petunia disliked her as well. If that was true (and it was), Petunia's hatred of Severus outweighed the dislike of her sister and Lily was thankful for it. Petunia ignored Lily's smile.

"I'm just looking out for you, because you're too stupid to see when people are going to end up hurting you. I warned you about that boy, but you never listened to me. Boys who don't wash their hair are always up to no good." Said Petunia gruffly, and returned to planting flowers. Lily could tell that the conversation was over and, feeling somewhat better than she had all week, continued weeding.

_Several weeks later on a muggy Friday afternoon in Lily's house _

The end of August found Lily watching reruns of _Doctor Who_ sprawled out on the couch and half covered with an old handmade quilt. There was a knock at the door. She knew that her mum was in the kitchen and that was closer to the front door anyway, so she ignored the sound and continued watching Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen fight Rodger Delgado.

"Lily, it's for you!" Her mum called a few moments later. Lily's stomach clenched with nerves as she came to the realization that the only person who could be visiting her at the moment was Severus. She really wasn't in the mood for another row with him, and that was what had happened every other time he had come over this summer. Unfortunately for Lily, he had not heeded Petunia's warnings and was now just careful to come round when she was not home.

With a dramatic sigh, Lily pushed herself off the couch and walked into the kitchen. Instead of finding Severus about, she was greeted by Carry McKinnon, Marlene's mum.

"Hullo," Lily said, pulling at her _Psychedelic Trolls_ t-shirt self-consciously. She hadn't even combed her hair this morning. "What are you doing here?"

"It's nice to see you too, dear." Carry laughed. "I was instructed by my youngest daughter to come and collect you so that the two of you could go shopping for school supplies and have a sleepover. She failed to mention however, that you were unaware of this plan."

"Well," Lily bit her lip and ran a hand through her unwashed hair. "If you give me twenty minutes, I'll just go… freshen up and then we can go."

"That's fine, dear. I'll just chat with your mum. I haven't talked to you in a while, Donna." She said, turning to look at the older redhead. "Not since we had to take the girls to Diagon Alley ourselves." Donna smiled politely. Being around adult witches and wizards always made her parents slightly nervous. But Carry always pretended that she didn't notice which made the situation less awkward. So, Lily left the kitchen and rushed up to her room.

Seventeen minutes later, now properly dressed, she walked back into the kitchen with a towel around her wet hair. "Since you're here, Mrs. McKinnon, would you mind drying my hair for me? Normally I let it air dry but…"

"Of course!" Carry said, pulling out her wand. "I forget that you can't do magic yourself, coming from a Muggle home."

"I'm also not of age." Lily said.

"Right," Carry laughed. "But if you're in a wizard home then they're not really as strict about that." Lily pulled the towel off her head and her hair dried at the wave of Carry's wand.

"That's not really fair." Lily said, running a hand through her hair to make sure it was all in place.

"Well, they can't tell who is performing the magic specifically, only that magic is being performed. It's easier to tell when Muggle borns are using magic because no one else in their house would be capable of it."

"It's still not fair." Lily grinned. "And does that mean I can use magic at your house?"

"Not legally. But I can't stop you and you wouldn't get caught."

"Stay out of trouble, Lily." Her mum said, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "And don't leave that towel sitting on the table please." She said, pointing at the towel on the table.

"I never get into trouble." Lily said with a laugh. It was mostly true, sans the few times her friends had persuaded her to bend the rules. Lily's mother raised an eyebrow and Lily quickly put the towel in the laundry.

"Bye, Mum! See you tomorrow!" Lily followed Mrs. McKinnon out of the house and into the street, where she received a quick lesson in Side-Along Apparition.

"Be sure to stay very, very still. We don't want anything getting splinched. I really don't like doing this with other people's children…"

"Wait, what?" Lily's surprised exclamation was too late, as she suddenly found herself being squeezed very tightly. The edges of her vision blurred, and when everything refocused, they were standing in the middle of the McKinnon's front lawn.

"What did you say dear?"

"I asked why you don't…Never mind." Lily shook her head. She suddenly realized that she had one less fingernail than she had left home with, and looked at Mrs. McKinnon.

"Oh for Merlin's sake…Let's not mention this to anyone and keep it between us." Lily agreed and then was distracted by the appearance of Marlene's poofy head in a window.

"Lily! You're here!" As Lily made her way to the front door, she heard an argument going on inside. When Marlene opened the door, she shouted, "Howie, stop pointing your toy wands at my friend! You'll accidentally burn someone again!" The six-year-old giggled maniacally as he ran out of the door and pointed a stubby wooden stick at Lily.

"Again?" inquired Lily. Marlene ignored her as she wrenched Howie back into the house and slammed the door. Lily caught a sight of several other children before the door closed completely.

"Sorry about that. Dad's birthday was last week and the family still hasn't left. Rachel's still here because she just had a baby and she wants me to babysit _all the time _and Howie is my brother so he never leaves and just…Lily, I'm going crazy in there!" Marlene's hair was much more out of control than usual, and Lily felt a mixture of pity and envy. She'd always wanted a large family, and Marlene's eleven siblings, parents, cousins, and other family had always made Lily feel welcome.

"So am I just a distraction to get you out of the house?"

"Exactly. Shut up and let's Floo into the Leaky Cauldron and meet Mary." Marlene cautiously opened the door and four children ran screaming out of the house. "_Rachel_! Your spawn got loose again!"

"Dammit Marlene, I just got the baby to sleep and you come thundering in here-"

"Maybe if you went to your own house, this wouldn't be an issue!"

"Which kids are they?" A woman who was the spitting image of Marlene (in ten years) came in holding a squalling baby on one hip and a screaming toddler on the other. Marlene's expression softened and she sighed.

"I'll get them. It was Lucas and Howie, and two of Michael's. I believe Lucas was naked." Marlene left to herd the children back into the house, and Rachel turned to greet Lily.

"Hullo, Rachel. How have you been?" Lily immediately regretted asking when Rachel glared at her. The older woman handed Lily the toddler and exited the room. The little boy stopped crying and stared at her.

He began eagerly babbling to her in nonsense words that Lily only had to agree to, because no matter what she said he would continue his story. He had on a stained t-shirt that had "Victor" stitched on the back, and it seemed as if his pants had been lost in the commotion. Marlene came back in, guiding four children (one of which was indeed naked) and Victor's eyes widened.

"_Mummy_! He is _naked_!" Announced Victor, pointing at his older brother. The child in question ran off and Marlene shrugged hopelessly. When she saw Lily holding a child, her face got red.

"Rachel, you can't just hand children off to my friends! Where did she go?" asked Marlene. Lily quietly reminded her friend about meeting Mary just as Mrs. McKinnon reappeared and took Victor.

"You girls go now while there's a lull. Hurry, before anything else happens!" She shepherded the girls toward the fireplace and left, calling for another one of Marlene's brothers, Simon to help Rachel with the baby. Marlene shook her head.

"You still want a big family, Lily? It's like living in a madhouse here." Marlene's question didn't need a response, and she continued as she took the pot containing the Floo powder from the mantle. "I mean, it's nice to always have something to do but when the family gets together…I don't even know how many of us are here, half the time!"

"At least you get on with your siblings."

"For the most part. Frankie had to leave yesterday, and you know he's my favorite brother." Lily took a handful of powder, stepped into the fireplace, and calmly said "Diagon Alley!" The flames roared up above her head, she found herself spinning out of control, and then-

-stepped out onto the fireplace rug at the Leaky Cauldron, leaving a sooty mess of footprints.

"Hullo, Lily!" an excited voice called out from a nearby table. She looked and saw Mary sitting there waving. The two girls happily greeted one another, and repeated the excited hellos when Marlene stumbled out of the fireplace.

"So, Lily," Mary said in a serious tone after the pleasantries were out of the way. "On a scale of one to ten, how are you doing on the whole Snape front?"

"I think I'm a pretty solid eight." Lily said, smiling slightly at Mary's chosen method of questioning. It was her post break-up question for the girls. "I mean, it still hurts when I think about it, but I should have seen this coming, you know? He kept telling me how I needed to appreciate the Dark Arts and respect them. He never wanted to talk about the Deat- You know what?" She smiled at Mary and ruffled the brunette's hair. "It's okay. _I'm_ okay. We don't need to talk about it. Let's go find Cath and get some new robes."

"You're sure you don't want to talk about it?" Mary said, eyeing Marlene warily.

"I'm sure." Lily said.

"Alright then, tell me if you change your mind." She said. "Also, I think we should go to Fortescue's first. Cath said we should come around closing time to get fitted because it's been pretty busy all day. I popped in when I first got here because I was early and she barely had a moment to talk."

"It's really odd watching her work, no?" Marlene asked, grinning. "I mean, Cath and productivity aren't really synonymous."

The three girls walked out the back door of the Leaky Cauldron and Mary took out her wand, tapping the bricks in the correct order as she twittered on about the latest Hogwarts gossip because even in the middle of the summer she was still up to date when it came to everyone's personal lives.

"And," She said, a coy smile on her lips that let Lily and Marlene know that she had been saving this piece of information for last. "Did either of you hear about Rodney Travers and Rosalie Crutchley. Apparently he broke up with her for no reason at all two weeks before her birthday."

"That's not what I heard." Marlene said. "I heard that he ditched her for being too clingy."

"Whatever, the point is that it's really her lose because Rodney is _really_ fit now. I mean he was always okay looking, but now… wow."

"Mary, you think half the people in school are _really_ fit." Lily laughed. "Regardless of their gender."

"And? I just really like people." Mary said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

When the girls reached Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, they walked up to the window and Mary pressed her face against the glass. "Alice!" She called, ignoring the older man currently waiting to take their order.

"She saw you coming and is-" But he was interrupted by a high-pitched squeal as Alice Fortescue threw her arms around Lily and Marlene. The brunette was two years older than the girls and had graduated from Hogwarts last year with the ambition of becoming an Auror.

"I have so much to tell you three!" She laughed as she pressed her lips to Mary's cheek. "Come on, get some ice cream and then join me at a table." The girls complied as quickly as they could because it seemed as though Alice was going to burst with excitement.

"Alight Alice, let's hear it." Mary said, picking up her spoon and twirling it around before scooping up a bite of her ice cream.

"Well, first of all, I got accepted into the Auror program!" The girls cheered appropriately before Alice hushed them. "That's not even the best part!" She looked positively giddy.

"What could be better than that?" Lily asked. "Isn't that what you've been wor-"

"FRANK PROPOSED!" She shouted, flinging her left hand into their faces and showing off her engagement ring. Several passer-byers paused and looked at the girls.

"He didn't." Mary said, frowning slightly. Then her face broke into a magnificent smile. "How did I not know about this!"

"It happened yesterday," Alice said, trying to calm herself down with a few deep breaths. "I haven't been able to get this stupid grin off my face since."

The girls gushed with her about wedding plans for a while before Alice stopped talking about white roses verses red roses midsentence. "Did you three hear about- Actually I know you didn't because it hasn't been in the Prophet yet. Charles Potter is getting promoted to Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. And that means he won't be head of the Auror Department anymore."

"Wait, does that mean that Moody is going to be Head of the Auror Department now?" Marlene asked. "I remember my parents mentioning something about how Mr. Potter was going to get promoted once the old head retired."

"Yeah," Alice nodded. "I'm fairly positive that Moody is going to take over, it would make the most sense. He was the Junior Head, plus he's got more experience than half the Aurors put together. It would be really intense training under him."

"Is this even going to make that much of a difference?" Mary asked. "I mean, they were already in charge."

Marlene raised her eyebrows slightly, but Alice didn't even try and hide her shock. "Are you joking?" She asked.

"No," Mary said slowly.

"Do you even know who the last Head of the D.M.L.E. was?" Marlene asked.

"I didn't even know what 'D.M.L.E.' stood for until you mentioned it a few minutes ago."

"Lily?" Marlene asked, looking over at the redhead.

"It something Bulstrode, right?" Lily said, glad she seemed to know slightly more than Mary.

"It was Quinton Blustrode." Alice said, giving both girls disapproving looks. "And he was one of the most elitist, pro-Pure Blood, pro-Voldemort-."

"Bulstrode… Isn't that Daphne's grandfather or something?" Mary interrupted.

"Yes, but you're not listening to me." Alice said. "Bulstrode hated people like the two of you and Charles Potter taking over his job is great news. Not only for you, but for Half Bloods and 'blood traitor' Pure Bloods. He's going to be able to stop the Pure Blood agenda from getting made to law."

"I think you're being a little over dramatic." Mary said, scrapping the last bit of ice cream out of her bowl. "This Bulstrode bloke didn't really do anything, did he?"

"He tried to pass a law that would have required all Half Bloods and Muggle Borns to register with the ministry." Marlene said. "And he discouraged all witches and wizards from marrying outside of their own blood status. He's basically just an awful man."

"When did he do that?" Lily asked.

"Last year." Alice said angrily. "It made the front page of the Prophet. Where were you two?" Mary and Lily glanced at each other and shrugged.

"Fifth year was a busy time for me." Mary said. "Anyway, before you two get any more upset we need to do some school shopping. It was great seeing you Alice, and congrats on your engagement." At the mention of her upcoming nuptials, Alice couldn't help but smile.

After hours of searching through books, ingredients and quills, the girls found themselves at Madam Malkin's only a few minutes before they were set to close.

"So, who here needs robes?" Marlene asked. "I don't because I've got hand-me-downs to spare."

"I just need mine let out a bit. I seemed to have grown a few inches." Lily said.

"I need a whole new set." Mary said, her cheeks going a bit red.

"What?" Lily asked. "You got brand new robes just last year."

"They ripped, okay?" Mary snapped. "I don't want to talk about it."

"What were you doing?" Marlene asked.

"I think you mean to ask _who_ she was doing." A new voice corrected. The girls turned to see Catherine Anderson walking out of the back room with an armful of robes. "And why she thought it was a good idea to use the broom cupboard next to the Transfigurations classroom, even though I told her _the day before_ that the latch stuck out and snagged my t-shirt."

"The cupboard is right on the way to Charms." Mary said, looking more exasperated than embarrassed now. "You didn't really expect me to go out and find a different spot, did you?"

"You managed to rip both of your robes in-between Transfiguration and Charms?" Lily asked, almost impressed. "We only have fifteen minutes to get from one class to another."

"I only ripped one of my robes, there's just no point of buying half a set. Besides, it's always a good idea to have a spare."

"Apparently." Cath smirked.

"So, Cath," Marlene asked with a grin. "What were you doing in the broom cupboard?"

"What do you think, Marlene?" Cath asked dryly.

"Well," Lily said. "Whenever we find you in a broom cupboard, you either asleep or snogging someone. I say it was a fair question."

"Well then, I'll leave it to your three to decide." She said. "Now, who's first?" Mary jumped up onto the stool and Cath took out her tape measure. "Auntie! My friends are here!"

Madam Malkin walked out a moment later and smiled at the new arrivals. "What can I do for you?" She asked Lily, who had stepped onto the second stool.

When the girls finished with their fittings, they followed Cath upstairs to the flat where she and her aunt lived. It was a small area, filled with extra cloth and sewing supplies, some moving of their own accord in corners of the room. The walls were filled with pictures of Cath as a child doing various activities and some of her with a woman who looked slightly like Madam Malkin and a man who's blonde hair matched Cath's exactly. The other girls assumed that they were Cath's mother and father, but they had never asked her. Cath was a private person and didn't really like to talk about her home life.

"So, for dinner," Cath said, leading the girls into the tiny kitchen at the end of the flat. "I was thinking we could have left-overs because I don't want to make anything. Though I did pick up some pumpkin juice just yesterday specifically with your three in mind."

"Oh how lovely of you." Lily said sarcastically. "You invite us over for dinner, and get us pumpkin juice."

"I don't have to feed you at all." Cath said, glaring at Lily. "And now, you don't get any pumpkin juice." After Lily begged for a while, Cath grudgingly relented and the girls feasted on two-day old biscuits and ham. They remained at Cath's for a while talking, when suddenly Marlene realized it was getting late.

"I promised Mum we'd be back by a quarter of ten!" she exclaimed, getting off the floor and scrabbling to pick up her purchases. "It's already half past!" The four girls quickly made their way to the Leaky Cauldron, where they bid hasty farewells.

"See you in a week!" called Mary as Marlene and Lily stepped into the fireplace and Flooed back to Marlene's home. Mrs. McKinnon gently scolded the girls for being late.

"Mum, be quiet. You'll wake up Rachel's spawn or something if you get any louder!" whispered Marlene over her shoulder as she pulled Lily up the stairs and closed the bedroom door.

"What do you think about what Alice was saying earlier? How Mr. Potter is stepping up," Marlene asked as she pulled on an oversized t-shirt.

"James' head will probably get even bigger once the promotion happens. Imagine how full of himself he is now; wait until his dad is the Head of an entire department!"

"Yeah…I suppose you could look at it that way. I meant as far as the rest of the world will be affected. Putting all of your _completely justified _anger with James aside, don't you think this will be an improvement for everyone? Unless he decides to keep the old Head's policies just so things aren't too shaken up, then I doubt much will change-"

"Marlene. I think we're going to have to wait until all of this actually happens to find out, don't you?" The blonde half-heartedly agreed, though privately she hoped things would begin changing sooner than that. The girls sleepily talked for a while longer until finally, exhausted from the day's events, they fell asleep.

* * *

**AN: Thank you all for the very nice reviews, the follows and the alerts. We're really glad that our story is getting such a positive response. Unfortunately, the updates will probably be a bit farther apart now because Alyssa is going back to school tomorrow and Felicia is going back next week. So collaboration will be slightly more difficult. But we will still be writing the story and updating, just not as frequently.  
**

**Reviews are always welcomed. :)  
**


	3. Of Twisted Knickers and Invisble Beasts

**Chapter Three: Of Twisted Knickers and Invisible Beasts **

_September first around 10:35am at the King's Cross Station_

Steam clouded the air and made it difficult to see other people in the train station. James Potter cursed quietly as someone ran over his foot with a very heavy trolley and walked off without apologizing. He shook his head but continued towards platform nine and three quarters, quite anxious to board the train and be on his way back to school.

This was the first year that he'd managed to convince his parents to allow him to go to Kings' Cross unaccompanied, and the sense of being mature gave him a burst in confidence. He expertly maneuvered his own trolley to the wall separating platforms nine and ten and nonchalantly leaned against it, pausing momentarily to rub his wounded foot through his sneaker before passing through the magical platform.

The familiar faces of Hogwarts students brought a grin to his face, and the cries of "Hey, Potter!" from classmates and teammates heightened his already buoyant mood. Today was going to be a good day, he could just tell. He was king, and Hogwarts was his domain. James was acutely aware of the way many of the witches inconspicuously watched him, and he allowed their glances to add a confident swagger to his walk. He ran his hand through his hair and suddenly caught a sight of Lily Evans' unmistakable hair. She turned and saw him. James raised his hand to wave, but her face fell into the glare he was accustomed to seeing aimed at him. She took the arm of Mary MacDonald, a brunette that Sirius was occasionally involved with, and marched onto the train and away from him.

Ah yes. Everything was back to normal. Seeing Lily's reaction to him didn't bother him that much, though he had been hoping that she had gotten over their last fight during the summer. They had their times when they got along and then they had times like this, where one of them despised the other. All was right with the world.

James walked towards the end of the train, towards the very last compartment to be exact. It was the same compartment that the Marauders (A name that was used to collectively refer to James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, because honestly, it was much easier for everyone than just listing them all out all the time.) sat in every time they rode the train. There may as well have been a sign on the door that stated it as their property, because sans a few ignorant first years, no one ever tried to sit there.

James was early enough however, that there weren't many first years on the train yet, and none of them seemed to have found their way to the end of the train. So he slid open the door, shoved his trunk onto the luggage rack and claimed the seat in the back corner next to the window as he always did.

It wasn't long until Sirius joined him, looking slightly put out and refusing to make eye contact.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" James asked, taking his wand out of his pocket simply for the sack of twirling it around his fingers. "Mary not speaking with you? Or maybe one of the other birds-"

"You left me at home with your parents you dolt." Sirius interrupted. "And for the last time, Mary and I are _not_ a thing." He sighed dramatically and fell down into the seat opposite James, leaving his trunk in the middle of the compartment. "I swear, you snog a bird one time and suddenly you're at the end all and be all stage with her."

"Whatever." James kicked his feet up so they were resting on Sirius's trunk. "And you can't be angry with me for leaving, I _told_ you I was leaving. I even waited an extra ten minutes for you before I left." Sirius mirrored James' position and they sat facing each other in silence for a moment. The noise from the station made the quiet in their compartment even more pronounced.

"I saw Mum and Dad with Reg," said Sirius quietly. The reason for Sirius' mood became clear, and his words hung in the air.

"Oh…Did they say anything?" James asked uncomfortably. Two weeks into summer, James had received a letter from Sirius asking if he could stay with the Potters until school started up again. The Potters viewed Sirius as a second son and were happy to have him, but Sirius had been somewhat moody and quiet, leaving James to suspect that something had happened. When Sirius finally told him something that James was not naive enough to believe was the entire story, he said that his parents had been more opinionated than usual and the fights between his parents and himself had reached a point where he couldn't take it.

So he'd left.

"Nah, of course they didn't say anything. Couldn't, could they? Not with the station so crowded and all. I waved to Reg and I think he was going to say hello but Mum grabbed his arm and yanked him away. Dad followed and said nothing, as usual." Sirius crossed his arms and glared out the window. "The funny thing is…I don't think Dad even cares that much. He wasn't _as _angry as Mum was about me getting into Gryffindor. I think he's disappointed, but…Whatever." James wasn't sure what to say. He knew Sirius would continue sooner or later, but just as Sirius opened his mouth to do so, the compartment door flew open.

"Hullo!" Peter Pettigrew entered the compartment, followed by Remus. Peter tripped over Sirius' trunk and nearly fell, but turned and landed in the seat next to James. He looked extremely pleased that he was able to pull it off.

"Hullo, Pete. Hullo, Remus," James and Sirius greeted, and made room for the other two boys. Sirius' trunk was relocated to the luggage rack and joined by Remus and Peter's. Sirius' previous funk was gone, replaced by his usual arrogant, carefree personality. He immediately began teasing Remus about his new haircut (which was quite atrocious, with one side longer than the other).

"Shut up, Padfoot! I told Mum that I wanted it to grow out. She made me cut it really short at the beginning of the summer, and it had just started to get to a normal length until_ this_ happened." James roared with laughter as Remus' face slowly grew redder and redder. "It's not that bad!"

"So…When you transform, do you have patches of fur that are shorter than normal, or is it split evenly down the middle?" asked Peter, trying to keep a serious face. Remus leaned across the compartment and shoved him. The compartment door slid open and the boys looked up to see Lily Evans looking, quite determinedly at just Remus.

"I simply wanted to remind you that we have to report to the prefects' carriage. Marcus Downing and Susan Arnold are the new prefects for Gryffindor, and the Heads have to talk to us. I'll see you there." Lily turned to go.

"Alright, Lily! How was your summer?" James' voice made her turn around and glare at him.

"Hullo, Potter. My summer was horrible. Thank you for asking." The door slid violently shut behind her. Peter and Sirius looked at James with wide eyes as Remus stood.

"Better get going…Catch up with you lot later." He left.

"What did you do, James? You two were being civil last term! Almost friendly even." Peter was the only one in the compartment who didn't know what happened between James and Lily. James had told Sirius over the summer, and it was Sirius who gave Peter a brief account while James supplied small, forgotten details. When Sirius reached the part when Lily and James fought in the common room, Peter interrupted.

"I remember that part. I was playing chess with Maggie Cunningham. Blimey, James…you've done it this time!" James pulled a face at Peter. The door slid open once again ("Oi! Our compartment is a bloody traffic stop today!"), and revealed the other two Gryffindor sixth-year boys. Terry Gibson stood closest to the door, while Emmett Dackery was further into the aisle. They quickly entered and greeted the boys. Emmett settled next to Sirius and Terry perched on the edge of the seat next to Peter. Terry and Emmett made an odd pair thrown together due to circumstance.

Emmett was half a foot taller than Terry and much more filled out. He played Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and quickly fell into conversation with James and Sirius about the upcoming Quidditch season. Terry had a slight build and light brown hair that tended to stick up in every direction, and his fingers were usually ink-stained from drawing. Peter and Terry tried to contribute to the discussion of Quidditch, but the discussion quickly grew too technical for either of them to comprehend.

Peter absentmindedly picked at a hangnail. Terry eventually left the carriage with the excuse of using the loo. "Probably going to find Cath," Sniggered Sirius as the compartment door shut.

"Oh, and you're not thinking about her either, Sirius?" teased Peter.

"She'd be a good shag, alright? Besides, she's never snogged a guy in Gryffindor…It would be like an achievement to be the first, yeah?" Sirius retorted. "Besides, I wouldn't get too proud of yourself for figuring out I'd like to snog her Pete…How many girls have you had?"

Peter blushed. "None…Yet."

"So you shut up about girls when you've got no experience on the subject." Sirius' tone was harsher than he meant and Peter shrank back into the seat. James nudged Sirius.

"Lay off, would you? He'll get a girl sooner or later."

The rest of the train ride continued much the same way as it always does; They eventually pulled out Exploding Snaps, they bought copious amounts of food from the trolley, Remus joined them a few hours later for a while, before he had to leave again to do rounds. Then Sirius berated Terry into letting him copy some of the summer homework that he had neglected to do, James found the rest of the Quidditch team and they talked strategy, Peter was cornered by Maggie Cunningham and Sirius was rude to her. It was basically just a completely ordinary train ride that lagged on for too long in most passengers' opinions.

* * *

_Two and a half hours after the train pulled into the Hogsmeade station. Girl's dormitory._

Well she had done it. She had successfully avoided both James and Severus during the train ride _and_ the welcoming feast. Sure, she had to throw herself into the girl's loo to avoid Severus seeing her, and she had to wolf down her dinner so she could get away from the table before James could come up and bother her, but she had done it. She wasn't going to let either of them ruin her first day back at Hogwarts. She was just going to enjoy it, because she deserved to that much.

She smiled at her accomplishment before she realized that having put all of her energy into avoiding them, she hadn't much enjoyed her first day back so far.

"I'm only saying that he's really fit now." Mary said, walking into the room with Cath and Camilla Travers (roommate number five.)

"Rodney is my brother, Mary." Camilla said with an overly dramatic eye roll. "I'm not about to just agree with you."

Marlene looked up from where she was currently sprawled out on her bed and raised her eyebrows at the scene before her. "Do you mean to tell me that Cath and Cam walked all the way up the stairs together and neither one of them are fatally injured?"

"We had a close call there for a moment." Mary said, ignoring Cam's previous comment about her brother and smirking at Marlene. "But I was able to pull them off each other before it got too bad."

"Right." Cam scoffed.

"As much as I hate to agree with the lineshooter over here," Cath sighed, looking slightly bored with the conversation. "If I did decide to kill her, there's nothing you could do to stop me, Mary."

"It's only the first day back," Lily said, jumping up from the edge of her bed. "Let's not plot any murders until at least week two, yeah?"

"Sounds completely reasonable." Marlene said. "Does this mean that you haven't plotted any murders yet?"

"Yes, Lils." Mary said. "I saw you jump in the loo as soon as Snape walked around the corner. No murderous plots from you yet?"

"I told you that I'm okay with it all." Lily sighed.

"You keep saying that…" Mary muttered, trailing off as she started digging through her trunk for her nightclothes.

"Have you lot seen Pip?" Cam asked, referring to roommate number six. "I lost her somewhere on the way up here."

"Maybe you should keep her on a leash then." Cath said, falling back into her own bed and toeing her shoes off. "I mean, if you don't want her wondering off."

"You're bloody hilarious, Cath. Honestly, I'm dying over here." Cam said, casting a glare in the blonde's direction.

"If only." Cath muttered. Then she snorted. "Two points for me."

"Would you stop that!" Cam shouted. "I don't care about your stupid points. This isn't a bloody game!" Somewhere in their first year, Cath had begun saying numbers of points gained or lost when she and Camilla had a row. The other girls were used to it and it was just a part of conversation, another way that Cath was able to get under Camilla's skin, because she found it extremely irritating.

"Cam, just ignore her. She's just doing it to bother you." Pip Pritchard strolled into the room and took a seat on the edge of the bed to the right of Camilla's. "Besides, we have more important things to talk about."

"Like what?" Maggie Cunningham (roommate number seven) emerged from the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth. The other girls often forgot that she was also in their year; she was a very quiet and private girl. Lily was surprised that Maggie had even spoken.

"Oh, it's not about cats. So you probably wouldn't care." Pip's remark was cutting, but true. Maggie rarely contributed to any discussion unless it had to do with cats or Peter Pettigrew. "But since you asked, I suppose I'll tell you." Pip paused for effect and then continued. "I think we need to discuss the fact that all of the boys in our year have mysteriously become much more attractive over the summer. I think there's something going on that we don't know about. Last year, Maso Vance had spots everywhere and was just…Not a pleasant sight. I caught a look at him during the feast, and he is fit!"

"Is that why you were the last one getting here?" Camilla winked at her best friend, and Pip had dignity enough to blush.

"Not Vance…"

"Pip! It is the first day of school, you've already found a bloke?" Lily couldn't believe it. None of the girls (except, perhaps Maggie) were exactly a novice when it came to boys, but they didn't have the stones to get a bloke on the very first night at school.

"I figured, best not wait, yeah? Before someone else could snatch him up?" Pip peeked at her friends from under her bangs. "Oh, don't give me your judging look, Lily Evans. Would you have been able to refuse Amos Diggory if he asked you out?"

"Quidditch players aren't quite my type, Pip." Lily held her breath and hoped that nobody would mention that she seemed to be the type Quidditch players liked. She'd had quite enough James Potter for the day, maybe the year, and if she had to hear anything else about-

"Speaking of fit boys, can we talk about James for a moment?" Camilla always brought James up at moments like this. Marlene privately wondered why in the world Camilla talked about him all the time, because they never even spoke all that often. And Camilla always sounded insincere when she spoke of James in Marlene's opinion.

"If you lot are going to talk about Potter, I'm going to bed. I've had quite enough of him for one day." Lily marched into the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

"They had another row before school ended last year." Marlene tried to explain.

"You mean, apart from the one near the lake?" Pip asked, not looking like she much cared that Lily had no interest in James.

"Yes." Marlene said with a nod. "He was… rather calloused with her. She didn't like it."

"Really?" Pip said, looking perhaps a bit too interested.

"Well, does this mean that some other girl might have a shot with the bloke?" Cam asked. "Because if so, it's about bloody time, no?"

"Just because she doesn't like him," Cath said, pushing herself up onto her elbows and sticking Cam with a smug look. "Doesn't mean that _he_ doesn't still fancy _her_. And why would he be interested in you anyway? You're a conniving little troll. I don't think James is in to that sort of thing." Cam made a face at her. "You're only proving my whole troll theory correct with faces like that. And I think I get another point for that."

"Hullo," Mary said, drawing the word out as she pulled her long hair back into a plait. "I thought we were talking about fit blokes. Not Cam's troll like face."

"I never said she looks like a troll." Cath said. "Honestly Cam, you have a lovely face. I just said that she _is_ a troll."

"Still, that doesn't sound like it has anything to do with boys. Does it?"

"Were we talking about boys? I'm sorry, I was dozing. I heard Cam's voice and figured it was a good time to chime in with a clever insult." Cath repositioned so she was half on the bed and half dangling over the edge.

"You weren't even part of the conversation!" Cam snapped.

"I live here too, though, so you can't exactly exclude me."

"Can we get back on subject?" Marlene's sudden interjection gave her everyone's full attention. "So Pip, you're having a date with Amos. We've got everyone filled in on the latest happenings and row with Lily and James- Although if we're being realistic, they'll probably have a new development in that by the end of the week. They fight all the time. Anything else?"

"You forgot the part where Camilla is a troll." Cath laughed when the shoe Cam threw at her missed by a meter.

"Honestly girls," Marlene said with a grin. "You're all acting like we're thirteen again. Cath, be nice. Cam, keep your shoes to yourself."

Lily chose this minute to walk out of the bathroom door, with her teeth brushed and hair up in a messy bun. "I think we should all go to bed now." She said, not pausing to see if she was interrupting anything. "We've got classes tomorrow. N.E.W.T. classes too." There was a collective groan at the reminder.

"It's still early." Cath said, having been one of the few not to groan.

"Cath, it's nearly midnight." Lily corrected. Pip and Mary filed into the bathroom and shut the door to get ready. Camilla and Marlene were immediately up and pounding on the bathroom door.

"_No!_ You two take hours in the bathroom! Other people have to get ready too!" Pip's laughter and a muffled "shut up" from Mary echoed out of the bathroom. Marlene flopped back onto her bed and groaned. Eventually, everyone was able to brush their teeth and go to sleep. Cath stayed up for a while, and Lily couldn't help but sleepily wonder if the blonde ever slept at a normal hour.

* * *

_During the hubbub in the girls' room, just a ways down in the boys' dormitory…_

"But seriously. If you bred a hippogriff with a thestral…That would be the most badass looking creature in the world. I don't understand how you can be in denial about this!" Sirius threw his hands in the air and collapsed back onto his bed.

"Are you kidding me? If you did that, you wouldn't be able to see it. Nobody would know what they looked like! No, just admit it; a dragon and a boggart. Because no matter what, that thing is going to be bloody terrifying." James crossed his arms and glared from the bed to the left of Sirius' at his best friend.

"Mates…" Terry groaned from his own bed. "It's eleven thirty. We have classes tomorrow. You idiots have been arguing about this for hours." Remus muttered agreement. Peter mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over.

"Then someone help us decide! I'm clearly in the right, but this wanker refuses to admit it." Sirius punched the air and burrowed into the massive pile of blankets on his bed.

"What about a dragon and a hippogriff?" Emmett said thoughtfully. Sirius scoffed and James shook his head but Emmett pushed the point. "No, think about it. It would be a fire breathing horse bird thing. That would be terrifying and badass."

"You don't know what you're talking about, Dackery." James sighed.

"Yeah, perhaps you should leave this conversation to the cool kids."

"Cool kids?" Remus snorted. "I hope you're not referring to yourselves."

"And what is that supposed to mean, Moony?" Sirius asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sirius, you refuse to eat chocolate pudding because it sticks to your teeth. And-"

"That's not odd." Sirius shouted his interruption. "I don't want to walk around with pudding on my teeth, that's perfectly normal thank you."

"But pudding doesn't stick to your teeth." Terry said, crinkling his brow in confusion. "It's practically a liquid it just-"

"It doesn't make me uncool."

"_And,_" Remus said before anyone could argue it any further. "James ran into a wall on the way up here. Twice." Terry tried to hide his amusement, but failed and started laughing.

"It wasn't my fault!" James muttered.

"It wasn't." Emmett said, looking quite serious when Remus started laughing himself. "He was too busy staring at Evans to notice there was a wall in front of him. We can hardly blame the poor lad for what happened."

"I was- That's not even- Shut up Dackery."

"Evans really shouldn't have been walking so close to James, I mean, it puts his very life in danger. It's her fault. I think I'll have a talk with her later."

"Dackery, if you don't stop talking _right now_, I'm going to kick you off the team." The beater simply shrugged, clasped his hands behind his head and fell back into his bed, looking mighty pleased with himself.

"Mate," Sirius sighed, shaking his head at James. "You're making this really difficult for me."

"Don't turn this round on me!" James cried. "You're the one who thinks and _invisible _creature would be badass. It can't be badass if _no one can see it!_"

"_That's the point!_ If you can't see it, it could just sneak up and kill you and there wouldn't even be a suspect! And we've already all agreed that I win, except Dackery because of his odd fascination with horse-birds-"

"Shut up!"

"-so let's move on. Or move back to the subject that you're trying to avoid anyway. Admit it Prongs, you were staring at Evans." James shifted uncomfortably.

"I wouldn't say that staring is the proper word. Maybe glaring? Because she's a pretentious ginger?" He didn't even manage to convince himself that there was any truth in his statement. Emmett and Sirius roared with laughter while Remus smiled knowingly from his bed.

"James, I think you're smothering her."

"I'm not smothering her." James said heatedly. "We were friends last year before it all went to shit and blew up. We were _friends. _As in, she actually enjoyed my company."

"You talked civilly with each other occasionally and mostly just in classes or when you ran into each other in the common room. You weren't really mates, just friendly acquaintances." Emmett said.

"We were mates." Remus shrugged.

"Just give it a rest, would you? There's other girls out there, and I'm sure one would be good for you. There's someone out there for everyone!"

"'cept Pete."

"Sirius. Shove it." Sirius sniggered and reached over to poke the sleeping Peter, who sighed and curled into a ball.

"Just give her space. Who knows, maybe she'll come 'round? But not if you keep mooning over her like you have been for the last six years. Give it a rest, mate." Remus leaned back and extinguished his lamp. "G'night, you lot. I don't want to be too knackered for classes." One by one, the other boys put out the lamps and fell asleep. James stared up at the hangings on the bed for a while, thinking about what Remus had said.

Maybe it was time for him to move on.

Then again, how many times had he said that before?

* * *

**Hello there! Thanks again for reading this latest installment in A Red String of Fate. We hope you enjoyed it and please be kind and leave a review! We love reviews. **


	4. Of Sloth Brains and New Heads

**Chapter Four: Of Sloth Brains and New Heads**

* * *

_Walking down one of the several corridors in Hogwarts, headed for their first class of the year  
_

Classes started the morning of September second, which happened to be a Thursday. This meant that the day started out with N.E.W.T. level potions for the sixth years, and now that they were in N.E.W.T. classes, all four of the houses attended lessons together for most of the subjects, Potions being one of them.

Lily, Mary, Marlene and Cath all walked down to the dungeon classroom after a lengthy breakfast and took their usual seats at the front table, furthest to the right.

"I still don't know why I'm even taking this class." Marlene sighed as she took her seat next to Lily. "I'm going to fail."

"You are not going to fail." Mary said, dropping her bag down onto the table and proceeding to dig through it. "I'm going to fail."

"You're not going to try," Marlene pointed out. "That doesn't count."

Mary shrugged her shoulders but didn't say anything to defend the accusation. She continued to look through her bag.

"Potions isn't hard." Said Cath, as she slumped down onto her stool next to Mary and immediately used her arm to perch her head on.

"Do you think anything is difficult?" Marlene asked, rolling her eyes.

"No," Cath said sarcastically. "Everything comes second nature to me because I'm perfect."

"Could have fooled me." Mary snorted.

"You can't be sarcastic about my sarcasm."

"You can't make rules for sarcasm."

As her friends bickered pointlessly, Lily's eyes continued to scan the ever-filling room. She now had a problem that she hadn't ever had to consider before. Severus was most likely going to be in this class. Before, she had always hoped that he would be, but now she knew he was going to be, and she was dreading it. And then there was the larger problem that Slughorn was still going to expect Lily and Severus to be partners and-

"Hu-llo!" Lily's musings were interrupted by a hand waving in front of her face. "Earth to Evans!" Mary's sing-song voice said.

"What?" Lily shook her head and focused on the girl leaning over her desk. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"I noticed." Mary said, her voice softer than normal. "Snape _is_ going to be in this-"

"Did you need something?" Lily interrupted. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the concern, but it made the incident seem a lot more recent than it was. She could handle it by herself.

Mary didn't like that of course. She sighed. "I asked you if you saw where I put my new quills this morning."

Lily shook as she answered, an amused grin on her lips. "You threw them in Cath's bag because she wasn't bringing any books and you didn't want them to get crushed." Mary's face brightened and she began rummaging through Cath's bag. Cath looked at her strangely, shrugged, and put her head down on the desk.

"Wake me when the Slug comes in." Lily admonished the blonde for insulting a professor, but the lecture fell on deaf ears. Cath had already fallen asleep.

"How does she do it?" wondered Marlene. "I can't fall asleep that quickly, no matter how hard I try."

They were saved from attempting to answer when Professor Slughorn jovially entered the classroom. His stomach lead the way as he strode up the aisle between tables, pausing to greet his favorites.

"Hello, Professor!" Lily said brightly, ignoring Mary's eye-roll as she greeted the potions master.

"Why, there's Miss Evans! I was wondering where you were!" His mustache quivered as he spoke, and Mary stared pointedly at the desk because she was prone to laughing at the professor's mustache.

"We always sit here, sir. Where else would we be?" Lily laughed.

"Well, I didn't see you with Mr. Snape, so I wasn't sure if you'd signed up for N.E.W.T. Potions or not!" Lily's smile slipped for a moment, but he didn't seem to notice. "I was wondering who would take the lead in class."

Lily didn't respond, and Slughorn continued to the neighboring table, where James, Remus, Terrance, and Arnie Callister, a Hufflepuff, were seated. James seemed to be lost without his partner-in-crime, and didn't even glare at Arnie when the boy started enthusiastically telling Slughorn about his summer in France. Snatches of the conversation (apparently the French are highly known for their potion-making skills) drifted to the girls table, and Lily's thoughts of Severus temporarily vanished as she snickered quietly about the Hufflepuff with Mary and Marlene. Slughorn began the lesson and asked the students to turn to page eight in their books and begin to prepare a Draught of Living Death.

"As this is a N.E.W.T. level class, I need to see where your skill levels are so I can set a good speed at which to teach this class. Bear in mind that I'm aware this is an extremely difficult potion to brew, so don't feel too pressured. Begin!" Lily was already up and in the ingredients cabinet, getting the best pick of sloth brains before they were gone. While she was inspecting two different brains, James sidled up to her.

"Woah Evans, having a bit of a fetish for animal brains, are we?" James picked up a brain and examined it. "You know, I don't really see what you're looking for. They all look the same to me."

"That's because you're a blind idiot, Potter. And here I was thinking your glasses were there purely to make your head look even bigger." James was lost for words. Lily smirked and turned away, having found the best sloth brain and the choicest asphodel root. She had her own infusion of wormwood in her bag, and when she got to the table, Marlene congratulated her on dealing with James. And if she had been a bit exasperated while she did so, Lily chose not to notice.

"But how in the world are we supposed to brew this properly? Look at this! The directions for this potion could be a book itself!" Mary shoved her copy of _Advanced Potion-Making_ under Lily's nose and huffed loudly. "I don't get it!"

"Mary, it's the first day of class. Relax." Cath said, sitting up quite suddenly and letting out a yawn. "And what part of, 'wake me when the slug comes in' don't you three understand?"

"Don't be like that, Cath." Mary said. "We were going to wake you in a few moments." The blonde rolled her eyes and stood, going to fetch supplies from the cabinet. "Grab me a brain, will you?" Mary called after her.

"Why?" Cath asked sweetly, turning around and continuing towards the ingredient cabinet backwards. "Did you leave yours upstairs?"

"What?" Mary shook her head and pointed a finger at the ingredients list." No, I didn't have a brain to bri- That's not funny, Cath." Despite what she said, the other girls seemed to find it funny.

"I don't even need to insult you." Cath smirked as Mary crossed her arms over her chest, trying to smile at the fact that she had walked right into that one. "You do it just fine on your own."

Lily shook her head at her friend's antics and went to work on her potion. Mary wasn't far off the mark with the length of the potions directions, it _could_ have been a book. Lily wasn't deterred by this however, she welcomed the challenge.

When she finally reached step seventeen and was allowed a two and a half minute break before she had to do the next step, she wiped her brow with her robe sleeve and settle back into her stool. Looking around the classroom, she gathered that she was the first to make it to step seventeen.

Mary was chewing on her lip anxiously while adding the square pieces of Valerian root to her potion while it gurgled angrily. Marlene was only two steps behind Lily, adding the powdered root of asphodel. Her potion may not have been as clear as Lily's, but it was still O work. Lily shook her head. She didn't understand why Marlene was so hard on herself. On the other side of the table, Cath was yawning while stirring her potion and Lily wondered how she managed to sleep through most of their classes and still get good marks.

Throughout the room, students were looking various states of frustrated and distressed.

All but one.

Her eyes accidentally locked with Severus's and she couldn't force herself to look away. He had been watching her. He didn't try and smile this time, and he was the first to look away. Despite her current feelings towards him, it still hurt. He had spent all summer trying to get her to talk to him. Lily didn't think that him stopping as soon as they returned to school was an accident.

"Lily," Cath said, pulling her attention away from the Slytherin. "It's been two minutes." She nodded towards Lily's potion.

"Oh, thank you."

"No problem. Can I use your timer now?" She reached over and grabbed the small timer without waiting for an answer.

* * *

_The following Saturday, on the Quidditch pitch at eight o'clock in the bloody morning…_

"I'm going to murder you in your sleep, Prongs." Sirius muttered, while rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the two of them made their way out of the locker room and towards the middle of the pitch. Marlene was the only one out there so far, the rest of the team lagged behind the two Marauders.

"At least wait until after we win the cup, yeah?" James seemed completely unperturbed by his friend's threat and continued looking over a sheet of numbers.

"I just don't understand why you thought it necessary to get us all up this early on a _Saturday_."

"There's no time like the present, Padfoot."

"Keep being cheerful and I'm going to kick your arse."

"Save that enthusiasm for the scrimmage."

"Honestly, mate. I'm going to kill you. It'll be violent and bloody too."

"Morning, Marlene." James grinned, now ignoring Sirius completely. "How are you this wondrous day?"

"I'm just dan-"

"Tell him he's insane." Sirius interrupted, throwing an arm around Marlene and resting his head on her shoulder. "Tell him you're exhausted and would rather be sleeping right now." James didn't miss the way Marlene's cheeks tinted red, and shook his head. He had figured that after being on the team with Sirius for a few years she had grown immune to his… whatever it was that made the birds act so odd around him.

In order to save himself and Marlene from the embarrassment that would have ensued had she been forced to speak just then, James turned back to look at the door to the locker room. "Chivvy on, you tossers!" He called, attempting to draw the rest of his team out and onto the pitch. Sirius groaned, clapped Marlene on the back, and quickened his pace to follow James into the air. Marlene mounted up and joined them, and the three of them looked down to see the rest of the team struggling to function. Emmett had set his Beater bat on the ground and then laid facedown next to it. Marcus Downing, Emmett's fellow Beater and a fifth year, nudged Emmett with the tip of his foot and shrugged, mounted his broom, and began lazy laps around the pitch. James sighed and kneaded his forehead with his hand.

"_Dackery_!" He bellowed. Emmett rolled over.

"Did you call me, O Magnificent Captain? I believe there might have been a slight noise from where you are, but I could be mistaken…" James turned red and started to fly towards the ground. Sirius grabbed the end of his broom and yanked him back.

"James-"

"_Emmett Bloody Dackery _if you don't get your_ lazy arse _in the air_ now, _I will personally see to it that your Beater bat is firmly lodged up it so far you won't be able to ride a broom for the rest of the season!" shouted Marlene. She felt the boys' eyes on her as Emmett jumped up and flew to join them. She didn't bother to flush with embarrassment when she saw that James had raised an eyebrow at her. She was an older sister and an aunt, she knew how to get people to do things. That and Quidditch were her only skills.

"Blimey, Mother, you don't have to nag." Emmett's flight path was somewhat wobbly and he took a few practice laps around the field before slowing to a halt next to James. Marcus flew up to join them.

"What's up with you today, Em?" asked the fifth year. He'd noticed the wobbling.

"There was a party last night…" The group collectively issued a breath of exasperation. Sirius chose this moment to _not_ mention that he had been present at the party as well and had probably done more shots of firewhiskey than Emmett. However, Sirius was very good at disguising his hangovers and had played off the resulting headache and nausea as being up early. James shook his head angrily.

"How many times have I said to not party before a practice?" He asked, keeping his voice level under control.

"Look, mate, there was a party and it was the first Friday of school. It would have been rude to not go!" Emmett couldn't understand why James didn't understand this- it seemed to be obvious to him. Rudeness was unacceptable to Emmett.

"…Whatever. Before we start practice, we should decide when we want tryouts to happen. We need a Keeper and another Chaser." James looked at each of his teammates in turn. "I want you lot to find people that you think would be good and let me know if they intend to tryout. I'll keep a special eye on them once tryouts actually happen. For actual tryouts, I'd like at least one person for each position to be there. Plus me, of course."

"Why would you be there?" Sirius deadpanned. "It isn't like you're the Captain!"

"I bloody well am the Captain." James said, scowling at his best mate.

"Oh, _you're_ the new Quidditch Captain?! You should have mentioned something! You 'bloody well _are_ the Captain', what do you know? Downing, did you know that?"

"Think he might've said it once or twice-"

"Maybe three times?"

"That's pushing it, I think…" Sirius and Marcus snickered and ignored James' scowl. James announced that tryouts would be held on September 21 through the 23 and results would be posted two days after. Once that business was decided, James ordered his team to begin their usual warm-ups. He and Sirius commenced passing the Quaffle between the two of them and scoring. Marlene would release the Snitch, close her eyes for a minute, then reopen her eyes and begin seeking. Marcus and Emmett released one Bludger and proceeded to whack it across the pitch at one another as hard as they could.

* * *

_Monday morning at breakfast before double Transfigurations (a.k.a. the class from Hell)_

"I'm still upset with you." Cath stated as she took her seat next to Marlene at the Gryffindor table. Not bothering to greet the blonde or Lily and instead, continued to glare disapprovingly at her supposed best mate.

"I still don't care." Mary said, a smug grin on her face as she took _her_ seat next to Lily. The girls sat across from one another and couldn't look more opposite. Apart from Mary being in a rather buoyant mood and Cath being in a rather fowl one, Mary was also fairly put together this morning. She had her long brown hair pulled back into a braid and draped over her left shoulder. She had applied a bit of blush and eye shadow this morning and had taken the time to do her nails the previous night as well. Cath on the other hand, had her blonde hair tied up on top of her head in an extraordinarily messy bun, her clothes were rumpled as if they had been picked off the floor a moment before she put them on, and her face completely bare of makeup. She looked as if she had just rolled out of bed…Probably because she _had_ just rolled out of bed.

"What are you two bickering about?" Marlene inquired curiously, for Cath and Mary hardly ever disagreed about anything. Witty quips at each other's expense? Sure. Actual bickering? A rare occurrence.

"Mary isn't taking Transfiguration this year." Cath stated in a tone that one might use to tattle on a sibling to a parent (which she might as well have been doing). Mary pursed her lips at Cath as soon as Lily's mouth opened.

"What do you mean you're not taking Transfiguration?" She gasped. "You have to take it, it's- I mean what kind of job can you get if you _don't_ take it?"

"You didn't have to do that." Mary said, kicking Cath's shin under the table.

"She was going to find out eventually." Cath shrugged.

"Yes," Mary allowed. "But I wasn't going to be there when she did." She then turned to face Lily. "I know that you disapprove, but I am dreadful at Transfiguration, even you can't deny that. I tried very hard-" Cath raised her eyebrow. "I tried very hard sometimes," She amended. "And I just couldn't get it right. If I took the N.E.W.T. level classes, I would have failed miserably and that would have been just as bad as not taking it, or worse."

"I would have helped you." Lily sighed, not finding much room for argument.

"You're already going to be helping me in Charms and Potions. You can't very well do _all_ of my school work."

Lily shook her head and sighed. "I'm not doing _any_ of your schoolwork this year, Mary."

Mary didn't get the chance to say anything more on the subject because just then hundreds of owls started flying into the room and landing on the tables in front of the students, dropping packages on their laps and picking bits of their breakfasts from their plates.

Marlene's tiny, but podgy, tawny owl dropped her copy of the Daily Prophet on her plate she hastened to pick it up before the pages got covered in the syrup she had been using for her waffles.

"For the love of Merlin." She muttered upon seeing a large blotch of syrup covering half of a photo on the bottom of the front page. "You're a bloody useless bird, Crank." The owl in question had perched himself on Marlene's shoulder and was waiting patiently for his reward. No one actually knew his real name, not even Marlene herself. She had forgotten years ago and taken to calling the bird an array of different things.

"He's old." Mary said, digging into Lily's bag for owl treats. "It's not his fault."

"He was never a very good bird." Marlene sighed. "That's why I ended up stuck with him." Mary shook her head as she fed the pellet to the tiered, old thing.

"Look," Cath said, pointing to the side of the paper that Marlene wasn't attempting to expunge syrup from. "Isn't that Potter's dad?"

Marlene stopped messing with the sticky mess and flipped the paper over as quickly as she could manage. "Aha!" She cried in victory as she took in the headlines. Cath leaned over to read the article over her shoulder and even she spared a smile at what she saw.

"What is it?" Lily tried to crane her neck to see, but being on the other side of the table made that impossible.

"Mr. Potter's been approved as head of the D.M.L.E." Marlene said with a grin, tapping the top of the paper in a satisfied manner. "Excellent news that is. Not that there was any doubt, but it's nice that things are official now."

"Not this again." Mary muttered so only Lily could hear. Lily hid her smile behind her pumpkin juice.

"Listen to this," Marlene straightened the paper out and cleared her throat. "The newly appointed- blah blah blah, The appointment has been long time coming- We already knew that, get to the speech- There we are." She cleared her throat again. "Over the last few years, our world has taken a turn for the worse I fear. That is the first thing that I am going to right with my new position as Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I would like to assure everyone who is feeling victimized or subjugated in this time of war amongst our world, that I will stop at nothing to ensure the safety and security of our people. All of our people. I would like it to be stated _unmistakably_, that whether or not you are of noble decent, you will be treated fairly and equally as your magical brethren.

"This goes in both directions. If suspected of a crime, regardless of your status, if there is sufficient evidence against you, you shall be forced before a court of law and if the sentence is Azkaban, then that is the sentence you will serve. If you are being discriminated against because of your standing, or lack thereof, this is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Alaster Moody and I intend to work together very closely over the next several months to ensure that what I have just stated will come to pass. I ask that the witches and wizards of England take what I said as both a promise and as reassurance. Thank you."

Marlene leaned back in her seat and smiled. "This is fantastic! Aren't you excited?"

"Well…Of course I am. Mr. Potter seems like a very capable leader. I just…Like I've told you. There's not that much discrimination! It's not that big of a deal. This Lord Voldemort character, he seems like he's just a classist idiot who has a small following. If the world paid attention to every idiot who has a modicum of public speaking skills, we would constantly be in a police state of paranoia!" Lily looked at Marlene for support, and Mary nodded.

"But it's a big step! His following, even if it's insignificant now, is scary. They've been killing people, Lily!" Marlene had the tendency to turn bright pink when she got agitated, and her face was now the color of bubblegum. "What if he came after you two?!"

Mary laughed. "Why in the world would he come after us? Lily and I haven't done anything, we're sixteen, and neither of us are going to go anywhere in the world. We won't do anything spectacular. Lily could become some great potioneer but for the most part, we'll be insignificant in the long run. Nobody in their right mind would trouble themselves with us." Lily nodded in agreement. "Besides, everyone knows how to look out for the nuts out there. The non-magical world has had enough of those, and any bad person in the Wizarding world would eventually make an appearance to the Muggle world as well.

"Also, Dumbledore would stop any psycho trying to aggressively take power, and you _know_ I'm right about that."

Marlene stood up and shoved away from the table. "If you two are going to treat this as a joke, you need a serious reality check. This is _huge_!" She stalked away. Marlene's departure revealed James Potter who was sitting a little ways down the table. He wasn't in his usual confident position, sprawled over more than half of his bench and talking loudly. He was slumped low in his seat and trying to avoid eye contact with people.

"Oi, Potter! You sick?" Mary reached over and nudged him. He shrugged her off, rose, and left. Lily thought she heard then words "bloody idiot" mumbled under his breath as he left, but she wasn't sure.

Mary and Lily looked at one another. "Seems like our year has gotten into a batch of Mood-Changing Potions, don't you think?" She asked. Lily sat quietly, gazing around the Great Hall. Around them, everyone had unrolled their _Prophet_ and was talking about the front-page, which featured a grinning Charles Potter shaking hands with Brennen Raglaw, the Minister of Magic.

"Maybe Potter is upset that his daddy can't spend as much time spoiling him as before," said Lily snidely. Mary's reply fell on deaf ears as Lily considered, for the first time, the possibility that perhaps James _wasn't_, in fact, thrilled with his father's promotion.

She couldn't imagine why.

_Ten minutes later, in the corridor outside Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class…_

"He's a bloody idiot, Sirius!" James shouted, his hands in his hair. He was pacing angrily up and down the corridor. Sirius was leaning up against the stone wall with his arms crossed and looking determinedly calm.

"Keep your voice down, would you? D'you want everyone in the castle to hear you?" Sirius's efforts to calm his friend weren't working, however James complied and lowered his voice to a whisper-yell.

"He's painted a bloody target on his face! Might as well construct a sign that says _I AM CHARLES POTTER, THE NEW HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MAGICAL LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND I SUPPORT EVERYTHING THE BAD LOT HATES._ Mum's got to be worried sick about him, can't imagine she's supporting this. Merlin's beard, they're going to kill him!" James' voice had slowly risen and was once again heard by everyone else surrounding them, which was thankfully very few people. The few minutes prior to N.E.W.T. Transfiguration was one of the infrequent times that this particular corridor wasn't bustling with people.

"They're not going to kill him. Would you get a grip? They've probably discussed it and he knows the risks. Can you really think of anyone else better suited to being the new Head, though? Your dad will be fine." James took a deep breath and looked at his best mate. Sirius wasn't always the most logical bloke, but when he was it was hard to find fault in his arguments. James was forced to swallow the truth of what Sirius was saying and nodded slowly.

"If you're wrong, I'll curse you." Sirius could tell from James' tone that the discussion was over for now. As it was, the corridor had begun to fill and it was better that the conversation had ended.

"Sounds fair." Sirius pushed himself off the wall and started for the classroom. James took a deep breath, trying to regain more composure, and then followed after him. "Hurry up would you? We've got a double period with Minerva, do you really want to be late for this?"

* * *

**Thank you for once again reading **_**A Red String of Fate**_**! Please review, we love reviews. Reviews stop the polar ice caps from melting and in turn save polar bears. Thank you again, we will be working frantically to post a new update for you all soon :)**


	5. Of Tea Dates and Chocolate Cakes

**Chapter Five: Of Tea Dates and Chocolate Cakes**

_Approximately 6:52 in the evening, hours after the Transfiguration lesson. Lightly raining. In the middle of the Quidditch pitch…_

James scuffed the toe of his shoe against the grass and glared around the Quidditch pitch. Even being in his favorite place in the castle wasn't enough to make him feel any better given the news about his father. He angrily mounted his broom and took off on a series of fast loop-de-loops and dives around the pitch. The breeze and stinging rain cleared his head and allowed him to think a little straighter.

"He's a bloody idiot." James' sudden remark surprised himself. He thought for a moment, and then decided that he could probably talk to himself at will here with no one overhearing him and telling him that it would be fine (or thinking him mad.)

"Because it bloody well won't be fine. Taking that damn promotion at a time like this is the stupidest decision he's ever had! Mum's going to be worried sick every time he goes in to work and Merlin knows she spends too much time worrying as it is." James descended to the ground and went to the trunk holding the different Quidditch balls. "And he didn't even tell me he was going to do it!" He quickly undid the straps holding in the Bludgers and grabbed a bat, then remounted and began smashing the Bludgers as they came at him.

"There's a nut on the loose going after Muggleborns and he thinks it's his _job_ to act as their savior. It's stupid. Just arrest this bloke already and have it done with!" James hit a Bludger with a new ferocity and felt a slight satisfaction as it connected with a goalpost with a resounding _clunk_. He looked down and, to his dismay, discovered that his solidarity had been interrupted by a group of Slytherins.

A few of his least favorite Slytherins, to be exact.

"Evening, Potter!" called Wane Mulciber, and raised a seemingly friendly hand in greeting. "Decided to take over all of the Quidditch positions, have you? Don't need a team? Going to be Beater as well as Chaser?"

"Fuck off, Mulciber," spat James. "They've just cleaned the pitch for the year, I don't think they'd look too kindly on your slime dirtying the place up again."

"You know, Potter, I might actually be offended if you had decent insults." Mulciber sighed. "Unfortunately, I think you've been hit in the head with a Bludger too many times. Either that, or blood-traitor Black's idiocy has rubbed off on you." James squinted in the increasing darkness to see who was with Mulciber. He groaned internally when he saw Regulus Black's small face peering out from behind the hulking shadow of Conrad Rosier. Esther Nott stood beside him, her thin frame leaning up against the wall of the stands.

"Look, how about you lot shove off and let me get back to practicing. We'll fight later and exchange insults and generally just have a lovely time. Perhaps have some tea and biscuits."

"We're not doing anything now." Mulciber said, looking around his friends for agreement. Rosier nodded along and Esther let out a shrill laugh. Regulus was the only one who looked at all uncomfortable.

James felt very much like rolling his eyes, but settled for crossing his arms. "I'm practicing right now. Tomorrow night I'm free. Oh wait, am I? Esther, are we still on for tomorrow night?" He winked at Esther and she blushed, looking down at her shoes. Her embarrassment quickly turned to anger when Rosier elbowed her. James stood his ground when Mulciber stepped closer to him, but felt quickly in his pocket for his wand.

Unfortunately, he'd left it in the locker room when he changed into shorts and trainers to fly in. He soundlessly cursed himself. He had an unfortunate habit of forgetting his wand when he needed it. Luckily, Mulciber was a few inches shorter and more out of shape than James, so he figured he could overpower Mulicber if the he didn't pull _his_ wand out right away.

The rest of them, however, he was not capable of handling.

"Reg!" Regulus tripped forward when Mulciber said his name. He looked very similar to Sirius, except smaller. And not nearly as arrogant. At least not in this crowd. And especially not around James. He looked almost ashamed now; it almost made James feel bad for him. "Potter _is_ the one that Snape has been moaning about for the past month, yeah?"

"Yes!" said Regulus quickly, trying to avoid looking at James. Mulciber chuckled and pushed him away.

"You know, Potter, Snape hasn't shut up about you. He's blaming you for how he lost that Mudblood bird of his. It's pathetic, how he's always sniveling about how she refuses to talk to him."

"I almost preferred when he would come back with that smell," snorted Rosier. "_Her_ stench. Mudblood stench." The other Slytherins agreed.

"Shut up about Evans." James said, grinding his teeth in an attempt for control.

"She really is pretty, isn't she Potter?" Mulciber took another step closer to James and giving him a calculating look. "The only reason we're here is to get Snape to shut up about how you've ruined his life. Maybe when we're done with you, we'll go and find her…Have a bit of fu-"

"_No!_" James pulled back and punched Mulciber in the nose. The bigger boy fell back and landed heavily on the ground. "Like hell you will! You'll stay the fuck away from her!"

Mulciber pushed himself up off the ground and ran towards James, getting his wand out. "And you're going to make sure of that, are you?" The tension in the pitch was almost palpable. James and Mulciber were standing chest to chest, their faces about an inch from one another and their expressions mirroring back what they saw. Furrowed brows, glinting eyes, locked jaws, both calculating, waiting for the other to make a move, waiting for the tension to snap, to break away and to cause a release.

"What's going on here?"

James and Mulciber both turned to see Sirius and Remus walking onto the pitch, Remus tucking away a worn looking bit of parchment. Both of them had their wands drawn. It was as if they have come with a needle and popped the balloon that had been trapping the tension around them. It was gone now, it had evaporated with the arrival of the two Marauders.

"Look who's come to join the party!" Mulciber scowled as he turned his back on James and took a few steps away from the Gryffindor. "Because of course you two would show up now." He shook his head and shoved his wand back into his pocket.

"What's the matter, Wane?" Remus asked, looking quite angry. "Not so interested in a fight now that the numbers are more even?"

"Even?" Rosier laughed. "Are you joking? Esther hardly counts as anything and Regulus is useless when Sirius around. Doubt he would have helped out if you two hadn't shown up."

"Mulciber would have needed help if Remus and I wouldn't have shown up?" Sirius asked with his brow raised. "I think Rosier might fancy you, mate." He said to James. "He seems to think highly of you anyway."

"Shut the fuck up, Black." Rosier snapped, his fist tightening on his wand.

"Let's just go." Esther sighed, looking bored now that there wasn't going to be a fight. "I've got a date with Gordon at Eight."

"Whore." Mulciber spat. "We'll have tea then." He said to James, eyes glinting once more. "Owl me when you're free." Then he followed Esther off the pitch. Rosier closely behind him, after casting another glare at Sirius. Regulus lingered for a moment before turning to leave.

"Why do you hang out with them, Reg?" Sirius asked. James could tell he was trying very hard not to yell. "They're going to get you in trouble, _real_ trouble."

"Mum and Dad don't think so." Reg said quietly, turning around and looking at his older brother. "They think your friends are going to get you kil-"

"I know what Mum and Dad think of my friends." Sirius growled. "I don't need you to remind me-"

"Why did you leave, Sirius?" Regulus interrupted, looking quite angry himself. "Why did you do that?"

"Why the bloody hell would I have stayed?" Sirius countered. Regulus's face fell slightly and nodded his head slowly.

"I don't know." He sighed. "I don't know. I guess I thought- I mean… It doesn't matter. I was wrong. I'll see you round." He left before anyone else could say anything.

"What was that about?" Sirius asked, looking after his brother. James and Remus exchanged a look but didn't say anything. "Actually, more importantly, what the hell are you doing starting fight with Slytherins by yourself."

"Believe it or not, I didn't start this one. I was just out here and they found me. Shocking, right? Although I could have fought them…It's been one of those days." Sirius nodded in understanding and Remus patted James' back. They walked with him back to the locker room and listened to him rant about his father's apparent stupidity. Once they were in the locker room, both Remus and Sirius admonished James for not taking his wand with him. The two of them managed to banish James' thoughts away temporarily with the topic of Quidditch and they left the locker room in much better spirits. Sirius convinced James to forgo homework for the time being and accompany him to the kitchens ("The house elves have apparently perfected a custard recipe, we ought to taste-test before the rest of the school is subjected to it right?) and tried coercing Remus to come as well.

"Moony, we can do homework any night. Tonight is not any night, and I think it is in your best interest to join us."

Remus groaned. "Please enlighten me as to how going to the kitchens is better for me than finishing my Arithmancy homework? I already told Terry that I would study with him anyway."

"You work yourself too much!"

"It's the beginning of the term and I've got three essays due next week!"

"Just five minutes, you won't regret it-"

"I'm not going to the kitchens! You two can go and enjoy your custard. I'll go later this week, or just have it with dinner. I _have_ to finish my Arithmancy!" Remus ignored them as he turned and hurriedly made his way back to the castle. James and Sirius watched him go.

"Is it this week or next?" asked Sirius as they slowly followed the path to the castle, wandlights bobbing in the night.

"This week. Thursday. He's been moody lately. So I assume it's this Thursday." James exhaled loudly. "I have an essay for Muggle Studies due Friday…I suppose I'll have to do it before Thursday since we'll be with Moony then. Think Evans will help me if I ask nicely?"

"Not a chance."

"I know."

They made small talk as they entered the hall to the kitchens, avoiding Remus Lupin's monthly predicament since small groups of students passed them. When they reached the fruit painting marking the entrance to their destination, James reached up and tickled the pear. The painting swung forward, revealing the equivalent of Nirvana to Hogwarts students. As they strode inside, they were assaulted with the aroma of cooking meat, baking bread, and countless other enticing smells. House-elves scurried around them, all greeting James and Sirius by first name. They sat in the corner near a bread oven and asked for custard. As they waited, Sirius asked James if he was all right.

"I honestly couldn't tell you. I'm mostly fine, other than the whole hubbub with Dad. I guess…I don't know. I just don't want him to die for all this."

"Mate, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. Okay?" James nodded. "I understand where you're coming from, but all of this-" Sirius gestured around them, trying to show that the entire Wizarding society was all of "this" "-is a good cause. Your dad isn't thick enough to put himself in a position like that without cause. He knows what he's doing, and clearly he's willing to risk himself in order to further the Muggle-born cause."

"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing. You really want Terry or Lily or any of the other Muggle-borns to be harmed because someone _good _didn't step up and speak for them?"

"Well, no…" A house-elf stopped in front of the boys and presented them with custard. Both of them gave her a distracted "thanks, Ferny" before digging into the delicious custard.

"If you can't say anything better than 'well, no', then you're agreeing I'm correct. You just don't want me to be right." Sirius mumbled through a mouthful of custard. James shrugged resignedly. He couldn't come up with any arguments. They sat in silence, except for the clinking of spoons against bowl, until they had both finished their custard.

"What you need, Prongs, is a decent lay. You're too stressed, you need to unwind for a bit. Find a bird and shag her, you'll feel much better." James let out a bark of laughter.

"Not every problem in the world is solved by shagging, Padfoot."

"Want to bet? If more people shagged, I bet there would be fewer problems in the world. We're going to find you a shag. And dragonweed. Shagging and dragonweed ought to sort you out." James protested, but none of his protestations were very heartfelt. He was already thinking through the girls that would be willing to shag him (in his mind, it was a very long list) and picking one. Lily Evans was immediately crossed off of his mental list, to great regret.

"I'll let you have Mary after the next match, if you want. The girl is… imaginative." Sirius waggled his eyebrows at James, who shoved him.

"Not Mary, she's too…Mary." They argued back and forth for a while about the girls, each bringing up different aspects or the girl in question. Both boys agreed that larger chests had certain benefits over smaller, and immediately their list shrunk by a quarter.

* * *

_In the library, at an isolated corner study table, at the same time…_

Lily (unaware that her chest in particular was the subject of a heated debate in the kitchens) groaned and let her head fall into her hands. She simply could not comprehend the book in front of her. Why did professors find it necessary that she learned different theory that was no longer relevant today? What was the point?

Deciding that she had muddled through her Transfigurations enough for the time being, she let herself have a bit of a break and leaned back, twirling a lock of hair idly around her fingertips as she looked around the library at her fellow students. Most of them were doing what she had been doing, homework. All bent over their books, looking equal parts frustrated and bored. Lily used to like doing her homework. Learning about all the different magical components was extra fascinating to her, being from a muggle home.

Her eyes drifted across the library until they rested, for a moment or two, on Amos Diggory's bum a few tables away. She shamelessly admired the way it looked when he stood up, stretching his arms over his head in an attempt to wake himself up. By the looks of it, he still had a few more hours of homework to do. Poor seventh year sod. She glanced around and saw Rodney Travers, Camilla's twin brother, staring at her. Turning an immediate and violent shade of red, she fixed her eyes on her book and became even more embarrassed when Rodney, quite suddenly, plopped down in the seat across from her.

"Saw you looking at Diggory's arse, Lily. You've been caught!" Lily didn't really speak to Rodney much, but he had a bit of a reputation. He was a pure blood for one thing, and the son of a Death Eater to boot. He wasn't supposed to poke fun at muggle borns about staring at bloke's arses, even if he was a Hufflepuff. Wasn't he supposed to think himself above all of that? "What would you do if I walked over there and told him?" He asked with a sly smile that reminded Lily of her roommate. Once his words had fully registered in her mind, she threw herself across the table to stop him, only to find out that he was grinning at her.

"Merlin's beard, Travers, you can't frighten me like that!"

"Of course not! Besides, I'll be the first bloke to say that his arse in one of the best I've seen. However, might I direct your attention to that Ravenclaw's bum over there? What's the blokes name, Chris- No, Caradoc. Look at the perfectly rounded shape…" Lily dissolved into giggles as Rodney sighed wistfully. "I only wish my own arse could be so sculpted."

Feeling oddly at ease, Lily didn't find it at all strange to say: "Your arse looks perfectly fine, Rodney." Her giggles stopped as she realized what she said however. "Oh, I didn't mean-"

"If you take back your words, I will be very insulted. I'll have you know that I work hard to keep my bum in such fine condition. If my hard work went unappreciated, I would be inconsolable." Lily laughed again and couldn't help but notice the way his blue eyes lit up when she did. He _did_ have quite a nice bum, even if it wasn't quite as Adonis-like as Amos'.

"I'm only joking, I don't do anything for my bum. Speaking of Honeydukes," He said, picking up her quill and twirling around his finger. "Ha-"

"I don't think either of us was speaking of Honeydukes." Lily interrupted, a smile playing on her lips.

"No? Are you sure? Maybe I was just thinking of Honeydukes then. It's not that surprising. I'm always thinking of Honeydukes." After a giggle from Lily and a grin from Rodney, he continued. "Have you tried some of the nasty chocolates that they have there?"

"I tend to stay away from nasty chocolates, oddly enough."

"Really?" Rodney asked, an expression of honest curiosity on his face. "So you're one of those people who never strays from what they know then?"

"What?"

"You go with the same kind every time. You know what you like and you never try anything new."

"There's nothing wrong with sticking with what you know." She defended, crossing her arms.

"Of course not." He said quickly. "But if you never give anything else a chance- I mean… I suppose you don't know what you're missing out on." He rubbed his hand along his jaw line and leaned back in his chair. "I'm just saying, if you never give something new a try, you might not even realize that you're settling with whatever you have now. You'll never know all the wonderful things you're missing out on. You might like, what, classic chocolate?" Lily nodded. "But have you ever tried the cherry chocolate fudge or the triple chocolate tea cakes? Or what about the chocolate cheesecake?"

"I don't avidly avoid any type of dessert."

"But you play it safe, no? You get the same thing every time because you know you like it."

"Again, there's nothing wrong with that."

"No, but you might like something else more. Or you might find it utterly disgusting., but you won't know unless you try."

"I don't fancy spending my money on something I might not like."

"I don't think that's what this is about though. They give you samples if you ask, why don't you ask?"

"Why is this so important to you?" She asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"Sometimes something doesn't look ideal, but it turns out to be the best thing you've ever had." He sighed. "Come on, I know I'm not the first person to tell you this." He rolled his eyes playfully.

"'Try new things, give them a chance and blah blah blah.' Yes, I have heard all of it before."

"You just like to ignore it then?"

"I... I wouldn't say that I ignore it. I like new things sometimes."

"Someone's afraid of change."

"I am not." Lily scoffed, thinking of getting her letter at age eleven and all the changes that that had brought about.

"Alright, someone is comfortable with familiarity." He amended.

"I won't argue with that."

"Of course not." He smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes this time. He actually looked a little disheartened. But only for a moment and then he was smiling for real. He leaned forward, across the table. "I'm going to leave now. I promised to meet Cam in the Owlery about ten minutes ago so we could write a letter to our parents and if I wait any longer, she'll be angry with me. More angry anyway. Try not to stare at my bum as I walk away." Lily's eyes widened at his comment, but he had already stood up before she could think of something to say. He really was quite brazen, wasn't he?

Her thoughts were only confirmed when he turned around and added, "I'm only joking, you can look if you'd like." Now standing a few tables away, his voice reached more than just her ears. Lily blushed bright red and tried to ignore the confused looks of her peers.

"Oh hush, you." She admonished, trying not to smile. Rodney shrugged and turned around. Lily forced herself not to look at his retreating figure, just in case he was to turn back and check if she was looking or not. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

* * *

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